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Sunday, August 21, 2016

At Least 30 Die in Turkey Wedding Hall Bombing

ISTANBUL – A terrorist attack on a wedding hall on Saturday has left at least 30 dead and dozens wounded in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the NTV network reported.

As the press was told by provincial Gov. Ali Yerlikaya, who defined the bombing as a “terrorist attack” without indicating who might be the perpetrators, the bomb was detonated at a wedding party in the downtown area just before midnight.

A legislator of the CHP opposition party, Mehmet Gokdag, told the network that according to local authorities, at least 13 people were killed.

For his part, a lawmaker of the ruling AKP party, Mehmet Erdogan, said on the same TV channel that this was probably a suicide bombing.

The wedding party was being held on a downtown street of Gaziantep, a hub of southern Turkey, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Syrian border and the scene of rearguard activities by numbers Syrian armed groups.

A great many ambulances have rushed to the scene and it is feared that the number of dead and wounded could increase.